“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the way that leads to life, and only a few find it.” Matthew 7:13-14

Why did God make the plan of salvation such a narrow path? Greg Koukl describes how the narrowness of God relates to His plan of redemption.

“The narrowness of the story doesn’t start with Jesus; it starts at the very beginning. God was always a narrow God. The First Commandment that He gave to the Jews was,

‘I am the Lord your God. You shall have no other God before me.’ Exodus 20:2-3

“When it comes to Jesus, this isn’t something that Christians invented; this is something that Jesus Himself made crystal clear. He said it time and time again, in many different ways, so it couldn’t be missed.”

Greg speaks to the condition of the fallen world and the reality of spiritual warfare that we all face.

“It isn’t just a narrow-minded, bigoted thing so God can trick people into going to hell. Man is in trouble as a result of the rebellion. It’s not just personally in trouble with the king, there’s another player in this and his name is Satan. He’s not a guy in red tights with a pitchfork and hoofs, he’s a real powerful spiritual force and he controls the human race.”

Mankind brought sin and destruction into the world, but Christianity offers a solution to this problem. Greg points out that people aren’t always going to agree with the solution. He shares a hypothetical example,

“You get sick with certain kind of sicknesses you go to the doctor and the doctor says, ‘we’ve got to take your stomach out. If we don’t take your stomach out, you’re going to die. There is no other way around this kind of cancer.’ You say, ‘Well I don’t like that, that’s kind of narrow.’

“Singular problems have singular solutions and this circumstance that human beings are in right now, is a very unique kind of problem that started in a very particular way. It’s really just a summary of what the Bible has to say about man.”

The solution to the problem of mankind is the person of Jesus Christ.

“God had to become a man, in the person of Jesus, and no other human being could do for us what the God man Jesus of Nazareth was able to do, and He actually accomplished. The reason Jesus is the only way of salvation, is because he’s the only one who solved the problem. Nobody else did this – nobody else could.”

Greg says it’s important to keep this truth in mind as we reflect on God’s plan of salvation.

The solution fits the problem and this is the reason why we can trust that the Christian story is the true story. The answer to guilt is not denial, the answer to guilt is forgiveness and this is where Jesus comes in. This is why Jesus is the only way.”


Greg Koukl holds MA degrees in both apologetics and philosophy. He’s spoken on over 50 university campuses and hosted his own radio talk show for 18 years defending “Christianity Worth Thinking About.” Greg is founder and president of Stand to Reason and serves as adjunct professor of Christian apologetics at Biola University.

God's plan of salvation